Op-Ed: Nicolas Maduro–Protecting the American people & our Constitution

With law-breakers misusing their positions to spy on Americans, Edward Snowden has risked all to protect the right of the American people to know of their peril. Now, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has offered asylum to American hero Edward Snowden.

Nicolas Maduro recently was elected to the Presidency of Venezuela, the position once held by the popular leader Hugo Chavez. Following Chavez, Maduro had some pretty big shoes to fill. Chavez was the first world leader (of all world leaders, including ours) to offer aid to those ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Chavez regularly offered winter heating oil to Americans living in colder regions of the United States who would have frozen without his assistance.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

newsonline

Maduro has more than managed to live up to expectations. Instantly, he showed courage through his honesty and boldness. He refused to back down to fear and pressure from outside interests and continued Chavez’s social reforms, providing health care, land and rights to the people of his country.

Now, Maduro has stepped forward, coming to the aid of Americans who feel they have the right to know when their government is spying on them. Maduro has offered asylum to Edward Snowden, the man who came to the aid of the American people in letting them know their government was watching them.

Edward Snowden had a choice. He could remain loyal to the special interests behind the NSA and let it spy on Americans without their knowledge or he could be loyal to the American people and let them know their government was monitoring them – kind of like Oceana’s Big Brother was doing to the people in 1984.

Snowden chose the American people over those spying on them and chose to let the American people know what was being done against their interests so that they could protect themselves. Now, the Obama Administration wants to prosecute Snowden under the Espionage Act for choosing the American people over the special interests behind Obama and the NSA. It’s sort of like prosecuting George Washington for his role at the Constitutional Convention. Now, does Obama have that right under the Constitution to go after someone who protected American rights and freedom? Let’s look at the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Notice that, the Constitution starts with and comes from “We the People.” The Constitution is not being given to us. We gave the Constitution to the government so that the government would act in our interests, securing “the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” and promoting our “general Welfare.”

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Edward Snowden let us know that the Fourth Amendment was being violated. Isn’t that a public service? Doesn’t that make the violators of this Amendment enemies of the American people? Doesn’t that mean that Edward Snowden was protecting the American people from enemies of our country – a country that consists of the people he (Edward Snowden) was protecting?

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Now when did the People of the United States grant the right to spy on us to the NSA or to the U.S. Government for that fact? If you reach the conclusion that the answer is “never,” then that means that this right is retained by the people and that the actions of the NSA in spying on the American people were another violation of the U.S. Constitution.

In other words, the NSA was breaking the law and Edward Snowden was upholding the law. So who should be prosecuted and who would make a great President?

In offering asylum to Edward Snowden, Nicolas Maduro has come to the aid of the American people. Maduro is a man who appears to believe in and support our Constitution. He is protecting our liberty, our rights and our freedom.

So while the law-breakers are trying to arrest the law abiding Edward Snowden, the American people need to ask themselves whether they can continue to excuse lawlessness in their government? While Snowden is out of the country, is it time for the American people to act to restore law and order in the United States?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Isn’t this document the basis of our freedom? Has it become irrelevant? America doesn’t need to keep electing leaders who break the law. We do have choices. The media may control the news but it doesn’t control what we do in the ballot booth.

Bolivian President Evo Morales

RT / YouTube

The next question is whether Edward Snowden can make it safely to Venezuela. Recently, the U.S. Government violated international law in forcing down the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales on suspicion Snowden was aboard his plane. In doing so, the U.S. Government placed all U.S. Ambassadors in peril by establishing sovereign sanctuaries can be violated at will and that international laws protecting international diplomatic premises are null and void where the U.S. is concerned. It is in the interests of the U.S. people and U.S. embassy personnel that those responsible for the downing of the Bolivian plane in Austria be brought before and prosecuted in the International Criminal Court as a sign that national sovereignty still exists.

Perhaps it’s time the American people learned to think and to act like Americans. If we don’t, then do we really have a country worth protecting? If we throw away our freedoms, our rights and our future through inaction, what does that say about us? If we don’t stand up for Edward Snowden and others protecting our freedoms and democracy, who will be left to stand up for us?

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com